Public Policy Report for 5 January 2009

Inspector General Finds Political Interference at Department of Interior

Interior Department Inspector General Earl
Devaney has released a report entitled “The
Endangered Species Act and the Conflict between
Science and Policy” that reviews the political
influence of former Interior Department Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and
Parks, Julie MacDonald, on listing decisions
concerning 20 different species. The report
concludes that MacDonald exerted undue political
influence on decisions relating to at least 13 of
these species. Cases in which the decisions made
by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were not
based on the best available science include those
of the marbled murrelet, spotted owl, and bull
trout. Since the release of the report, the Bush
administration has contacted a federal court and
stated that it may reevaluate its 2005 decision
to reduce the critical habitat designated for the
endangered bull trout by 90 percent.

Devaney wrote, “In the end, the cloud of
MacDonald’s overreaching, and the actions of
those who enabled and assisted her, have caused
the unnecessary expenditure of hundreds of
thousands of dollars to reissue decisions and
litigation costs to defend decisions that, in at
least two instances, the courts found to be
arbitrary and capricious,” Noah Greenwald of the
Center for Biological Diversity has noted that
settling in cases involving endangered species
decisions has become “almost routine” under the Bush administration.

The report suggests that changes to the
Endangered Species Act (ESA) may be needed to
correct the misconduct surrounding listed species
at the Department of Interior. Under the ESA,
the Interior Secretary has the authority to
reduce protected habitat or make other changes
but the law does not make clear the situations
under which such modifications are be permitted.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) is among those in
Congress considering action on the matter. Wyden
stated, “While I look forward to working with a
new administration with a much greater respect
for the law, Congress needs to take immediate
steps to make sure that Julie MacDonald’s legacy can never be repeated.”

Although MacDonald resigned in 2007, a number of
people who aided her in exerting her political
influence are career employees that remain at the
Department of Interior, including Randal Bowman, Thomas Graf, and Craig Manson.

Decisions Protect Some Marine Species, Not Others

Meanwhile, the Department of Interior has
released decisions on the listing of several
species that have the potential to be severely
impacted by climate change in the coming
years. On 17 December, the Fish and Wildlife
Service proposed listing seven species of
penguins, but stated that listing was not
warranted for an additional three species: the
northern rockhopper, macaroni, and emperor
penguins. Similarly, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration announced on the 23
December that the ribbon seal should not be a
listed species under the Endangered Species Act.

Environmental groups are questioning the Bush
administration’s decisions as the ribbon seals
depend heavily on sea ice for reproduction and
declining numbers of Emperor penguins, made
famous by the movie “March of the Penguins,” have
been linked to global warming.

The decision to not list the ribbon seal removes
a potential barrier for energy development in the
Chukchi Sea, where ten year exploration and
drilling leases where auctioned off for $2.5
billion by the federal government in
February. If the ribbon seal were listed, the
sea ice in this area would likely be designated as critical habitat.

“The denial of protection for the ribbon seal
ignores the science on global warming and ignores
the law. We are confident it will be overturned
by either the courts or the new administration,”
said Brendan Cummings of The Center for
Biological Diversity. The Center has filed a
60-day notice of intent to sue in response to the ribbon seal ruling.

Some Obama Science Agency Appointees Will Face Challenges

As the end of the Bush administration nears and
the scientific community looks ahead to
leadership and policy changes federal science
agencies, it is increasingly clear that the
leadership of all federal science programs face
major challenges. For example, among the stated
priorities of the Obama administration and the
111th Congress will be action on the nation’s
energy and climate change policies.

Secretary of the Interior designate Ken Salazar
has a difficult job ahead of him reforming the
Department of the Interior, which includes the
United States Geological Survey, National Park
Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the Fish
and Wildlife Service. Salazar has been described
as a “cowboy-hat-wearing Western Democrat in the
mold of Cecil Andrus,” who, as Secretary of the
Interior for President Carter, was responsible
for significant environmental
legislation. Salazar, a Democrat, served in the
United States Senate until his selection to serve
as Secretary of the Interior.

Over the past eight years, some bureaus within
the Department of the Interior have been suffered
from sex, financial, and accounting scandals, and
political interference with endangered species
management. According to some analysts,
management has been more focused on increasing
energy output than on managing or protecting
public lands. Salazar has won mixed praise from
environmentalists. As a fifth-generation rancher
and a Senator from the West, he has close ties
with the land, has supported his state’s efforts
to limit groundwater impacts from the process of
in-situ uranium mining, and often taken unpopular
stands against oil shale. Overall he has been
accepted as a compromise candidate because of his
demonstrated commitment to conservation, and
history as a moderate who knows the importance of
working across party lines to get things done.

The selection of Tom Vilsack to serve as
Secretary of Agriculture has been met with mixed
reviews from many in the scientific and
environmental communities who are calling for
food safety, hunger, and local-farming to be
higher priorities. Vilsack, a former Iowa
Governor is a centrist who was named biotech’s
Governor of the Year in 2001, has close ties with
Monsanto, and is a vocal advocate for ethanol,
which worries many environmentalists and research
scientists. Bruce Babcock, director of Iowa
State University’s Center for Agricultural and
Rural Development noted that Vilsack “represents
mainstream production ag.” However, he has also
been a strong supporter of rural farm development
in Iowa, has supported the labeling of GMO food,
and has favored innovative policies such as
subsidies for farmers that implement soil and
water management practices. At the USDA he will
face an agency whose reputation has become
somewhat tarnished because of numerous food
safety scandals, including those surrounding meat
packing and tainted spinach.

Early challenges facing Vilsack will likely
include managing the growth of the biofuels
industry while ensuring sufficient food and feed
grain, and also dealing with the environmental
impacts of increased crop
production. Additionally, the USDA has suffered
from budget shortfalls that have hindered
research, and it is likely that if he tries to
shift research policies he will face serious
obstacles from institutional inertia to agribusiness’s entrenched influence.

At the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the
nomination of Lisa Jackson has similarly received
mixed reviews. Jackson has two decades of
experience as an environmental regulator and
helped crack down on greenhouse gas emissions in
pollution-plagued New Jersey. However, critics
note that during her tenure in the New Jersey
Department of Environmental Protection, the
department failed to adopt many important
pesticide and chemical standards and delayed
progress on emission targets. With the EPA,
Jackson will inherit an agency that has been the
subject of much controversy during the Bush
administration. Jackson will be charged with the
restoring calm within the agency as well as
repairing its reputation as a credible generator of scientific information.

New Report Describes Postsecondary Institutional Workforce

The National Center for Education Statistics
(NCES) recently released a report which describes
the number and diversity of workers employed by
postsecondary educational institutions in the
United States. The report also highlights the
percentage of faculty who have earned tenure
status at their institution and the average
salary of different faculty ranks ranging from instructors to professors.

Participation in the study is a requirement for
all postsecondary schools that receive and
administer federal financial aid for
students. NCES found that over 3.63 million
individuals are employed by the 6,706
institutions that were surveyed. “Staff whose
primary responsibility is instruction, research,
and/or public service” numbered nearly 1.41
million with the majority (63 percent) being
employed by public rather than private
institutions. Nearly half (48.5 percent) of
these staff were part-time workers. Of the 1.32
million people who were classified as “full-time
professional staff”, 47.5 percent were reported
to have faculty status and 52.5 percent did not
have faculty status. Among those classified as
faculty, only 45.3 percent have tenure at their
institution, 19.3 percent were on the tenure
track, and the remainder either were not on
tenure track (21.8 percent) or did not have a
tenure system at their institution (13.6 percent).

Of the more than 700 thousand full-time faculty
in the United States, most work at public 4-year
institutions (50.4 percent) while private 4-year
and public 2-year employ 32.1 and 16.1 percent,
respectively. The majority of full-time faculty
members are male (58.2 percent) and white,
non-Hispanic (76.8 percent). The diversity among
faculty with tenure is even lower, with 66.1
percent being male (33.9 percent female) and 82.9
percent classified as white, non-Hispanic. The
second most prevalent racial group among all
faculty and those with tenure are Asian/Pacific
Islanders at 7.6 percent and 7.0 percent,
respectively. Black, non-Hispanics make up only
5.4 percent of all faculty and 4.6 percent of
those with tenure, while Hispanics account for
3.6 percent of all faculty and 3.3 percent of those with tenure.

The NCES reports that the average salary of
full-time instructional faculty is
$69,698. Salaries were reported as an adjusted
9-month average. The average salary among ranks
of faculty is as follows: Professor ($98,020),
Associate Professor ($70,744), Assistant
Professor ($59,283), Instructor ($51,633), and
Lecturer ($51,552). Men were reported as having
a higher average salary than women across all
faculty ranks at both 4-year and 2-year public institutions.

The full NCES report, entitled, “Employees in
Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2007, and
Salaries of Full-Time Instructional Faculty,
2007-2008,” is available online at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009154.pdf

New in Bioscience: "Nothing Average About Change"

In the January 2009 issue of BioScience, Robert
Gropp reports on the Obama transition and some of
the potential implications for the nation’s
science policy agenda. To read this and other
columns for free, please go to
http://www.aibs.org/washington-watch/. An
excerpt from “Nothing Average About Change” follows:

On 4 November 2008, a long, expensive, and
unprecedented general election finally concluded.
By the next morning, one would have been
hard-pressed to find a field biologist even in
the most remote locale who had not learned of the
historically significant election result: Barack
Obama had been elected the nation’s 44th
president. Yet the outcome of the presidential
race was only part of the November news. A
steadily worsening economy and significant
election wins for Democratic candidates for the
US House and Senate garnered headlines and
refocused the nation’s political and public policy priorities.

As the economy continued its downturn after the
November election, historians, political
analysts, and other professional and amateur
Washington, DC, pundits drew parallels between
the conditions facing Barack Obama and those of
the Great Depression era that occupied Franklin
D. Roosevelt. Clearly, the combination of
geopolitical instability (i.e., wars in Iraq and
Afghan­istan) and an economic recession presents
great challenges to President-elect Obama and to
the new 111th Congress, which must work to reach
compromise on significant legislative initiatives
while holding together a Democratic majority that
is untested and susceptible to fragmentation on some issues.

Employment Opportunity: AIBS Public Affairs Associate

The American Institute of Biological Sciences
(AIBS), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit scientific
association with individual and organizational
members, seeks a Public Affairs Associate to join
its energetic Public Policy Office. The
successful applicant will work to develop and
help advance science policy and media relations
initiatives. Responsibilities will include
working on legislative and regulatory policy
issues, writing policy analyses for online and
print publications, developing materials for
policy and news briefings, helping to develop and
implement the Public Policy Office’s policy
advocacy/communications strategies, making public
presentations, and representing AIBS in a variety
of settings. Travel and occasional work on
evenings, weekends, or holidays is required.

Duties Include:

Represent AIBS and its members in the public
policy arena to promote the use of scientific
information in decisions pertaining to scientific
research, education, and applications;

Possession of common sense and good judgment
with strong interpersonal skills and a sense of humor;

A Bachelor’s degree in the biological
sciences, science policy, science communication,
or journalism (or a closely related field). A
graduate degree and prior work experience in
public policy/affairs are highly desirable.

Compensation and Benefits:
This is a full-time position in downtown
Washington, DC. Salary is commensurate with
experience. AIBS offers a competitive benefits
package that includes a retirement plan, health
and disability insurance, paid annual and sick leave, and paid holidays.

To Apply:
Send a cover letter, resume, salary history and
requirements, names and contact information of
three professional references, and a writing
sample (approx. 750 words) to
publ…@aibs.org or via fax to
202-628-1509. Application review will begin
immediately and continue until this position is filled.

The American Institute of Biological Sciences
(AIBS, www.aibs.org) is pleased to announce that
applications are being accepted for the 2009 AIBS
Emerging Public Policy Leadership Award
(EPPLA). The EPPLA program enables graduate
students in the biological sciences to receive
first-hand experience in the science policy arena.

Recipients receive:

A trip to Washington, DC, during spring 2009 to
participate in a Biological and Ecological
Sciences Coalition (BESC) Congressional Visits
Day (target dates are 21-22 April 2009). The BESC
CVD is an annual event that brings scientists to
Washington, DC, to advocate for federal funding for the biological sciences.

The EPPLA will attend briefings by key
officials from the White House and Congress and a
Capitol Hill reception honoring a member of Congress.

The EPPLA will meet with their Representative and Senators.

A certificate and 1-year AIBS membership,
including subscription to BioScience and a copy
of Communicating Science: A Primer for Working with the Media.

2009 AIBS Media Award Entries Due Soon

The American Institute of Biological Sciences
(AIBS) is accepting entries for the 2009 AIBS
Media Award for outstanding reporting on
biological research. The deadline is 15 January 2009.

The winner receives an all-expense-paid trip to
Washington, DC, to attend the awards ceremony and
a prize of $1,000. Submissions will be judged by
a panel of scientists and science journalists,
and will be evaluated on the basis of clarity,
writing/reporting skills, originality, and appeal to the general public.

Only one entry per journalist will be considered;
both freelancers and staff writers are eligible.
For an application and further information,
please download 2009 AIBS Media Award (108 KB,
PDF) or contact Jennifer Williams at
jwil…@aibs.org (202-628-1500 ext. 209).

Now In the AIBS Webstore: "Communicating Science: A Primer for Working with the Media"

Evolution, climate change, stem cell research --
Scientists are frequently called upon to provide
expert information on hot button issues that
pervade the daily news headlines, yet most find
themselves woefully unprepared for the bright
lights of the television studio or leading
questions from a newspaper journalist. A new
publication from AIBS, "Communicating Science: A
Primer for Working with the Media," by Holly
Menninger and Robert Gropp in the Public Policy
Office, will prepare scientists for successful and effective media interviews.

Recognizing that many scientists are reluctant to
engage in media outreach, "Communicating Science"
outlines compelling reasons for scientists to
interact with the media and describes key
differences between journalism and science that
may not be apparent to practicing scientists.
Step-by-step, Menninger and Gropp walk scientists
through the entire interview process - from
appropriate questions to ask when a reporter
calls to practical advice for looking and
sounding one's best on-air or on-camera.

The information and advice in "Communicating
Science" is presented in eight easy-to-read
chapters that provide vital information for
scientists new to media outreach, as well as a
quick refresher for seasoned experts - an ideal
text for a graduate course on science
communication or a professional development
course for students and faculty. The primer's
authors speak from their own experiences as PhD
scientists in the biological sciences with years
of experience in media outreach.

The concise, user-friendly volume has several
unique features that set it apart from other
media guides for scientists. "Communicating
Science" includes first-person interviews with
nearly a dozen scientists who have successfully
navigated print, radio, and television
interviews. The scientists-including the "Island
Snake Lady," Kristin Stanford, recently featured
on the Discovery Channel show, "Dirty Jobs" -
share advice and experiences on a number of
topics, including safely speaking on behalf of an
organization, avoiding trouble when discussing
socially or politically controversial topics, and
reflections on first interviews.

"Communicating Science" also provides worksheets
to assist readers with interview preparation:
building a message framework with talking points
and transition phrases, developing analogies, and
using illustrative props or images. It includes
pages for readers to organize contact information
of journalists with whom they have worked
directly and those who have reported on stories
related to their own research to keep as
potential contacts for future story pitches.